Source: UNICEF

UNICEF released a report this week titled The Climate Crisis is a Child Rights Crisis. This report generated new evidence on the potential risk of climate and environmental hazards (including shocks and stressors caused by such events). This report was created with youth climate activists in mind and was launched on the third anniversary of Friday’s for Future (Greta Thunberg’s organization).

The report found that over 1 billion children are already at extreme risk of being impacted by the current climate crisis. This is especially the case when looking at natural disasters such as floods, heatwaves, natural fires, and drought, which have impacted developing nations’ disproportionality—it is within these developing nations (which hosts 1 billion children cumulatively) that natural disasters are most prominent.  Moreover, the study found that children were more likely to suffer the brunt of these disasters due to their developing state and other external factors (water and food scarcity, disease, etc.).

The message of the report was clear: our generation and all upcoming ones must focus on protecting those sensitive to the now prevalent climate crisis.

Exxon’s Ambitious Destruction of the Environment

Source: CNBC

An article published by the Guardian has reported on ExxonMobil’s new Guyana project which has experts worried about a potential oil-related environmental disaster. The largest worry both citizens and climatic researchers have had about the project is the potential further degradation of the sensitive marine ecosystem. The company has chosen this specific ecosystem to extract what is expected to be 9 billion barrels of oil.

The article details the company’s ambitious goal to produce 800 000 barrels of oil a day by 2025; Exxon hopes to increase its production of oil exponentially, disregarding the parallel of its increase with the environment’s decline. Such a pursuit is not inherently unique, as other oil industries are producing similar goals in hopes to keep up in the race within the fossil fuel industry.

However, Exxon has more intentional harm as the company has prioritized picking production locations without acknowledging its ecological sensitivity and overall importance to the global climate in its planning process. The article describes Guyana as a “rich” ecosystem that has 80% of its land dominated by biodiverse rainforests. This fact suggests that exploitation of natural resources (such as oil) in this nation not only results in natural spills in extraction and other damage to local biodiversity but also the massive release of carbon into the global atmosphere from rainforests (known to be carbon sinks)  that have been utilized in due process.

In the search for progress, Exxon has forgotten its most important stakeholder, the environment where it extracts its product, and our publication (and many others) will closely monitor its next steps.

The Montreal Protocol Has Saved Our Planet from A Climate Catastrophe

Source: BBC

A journal article published this week suggested that the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer first passed in 1987, has allowed the world to avoid an extreme climate crisis.

In doing so, it has stopped an additional 115-225 parts per million accumulation in atmospheric carbon dioxide—the call for action has allowed for the world to have at most a 1.0 degree cooler global temperature. Additionally, the protocol has also mitigated the growth of land carbon sinks. The report actually suggests that 580 billion tonnes of carbon stored in forests have been stopped because of the lack of growth!

Conclusion This study has found conclusive proof that harsh criticism from unified protests (through international agencies) has caused an immensely positive change and protected the global biosphere.

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 62 appeared first on A\J.

In light of the new climate change report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a working group of the United Nations (UN), this week’s WTF will be focused on the most interesting and alarming aspects of the published study.

The Origins of the Evolution and the Ascent of Humanity, Part One

On Monday, the United Nations issued their 2021 Climate Report in advance of November’s COP26, and the headlines were shocking:

UN climate report is our ‘final wake-up call,’ say environmental experts

Island nations react to devastating U.N. climate change report: “We are on the edge of extinction”

ALARMING NEW UN CLIMATE REPORT SAYS HUMANITY HAS REALLY SCREWED ITSELF

The news cycles and social feeds were full of stories, explainers, and what-next articles and posts that exploded in the days following, although they’ve slowed to a relative trickle as I type this on a Thursday. Perhaps we’re all taking time to digest the devastating nature of the findings, that we humans have had a MASSIVE negative impact on the quality of life for all species on this planet. Perhaps we’re wrestling with the guilt of our individual and collective contributions to the negative impacts that manifest as life-stealing wildfires, droughts, famines, and extreme weather events. And perhaps, we’re all taking this time to prepare ourselves to follow the natural course of evolution: preserve your species by doing the things and taking the actions that will allow your species to perpetuate itself into the future.

Revolutions, the few insisting upon massive change for the many, are generally very painful and frequently pyrrhic exercises. Evolutions, when the mass of change(s) forces all to follow suit, can also be painful but generally prove to have longer-lasting consequences. For us humans, some simian ancestor developed an opposable thumb, learned to use it for benefit and betterment, and, voila, it gave our family tree members an advantage to climb to the top of the food chain. 

But how does this connect to our publication and global climate change in general? Read on to find out!

Climate Change – Undeniably Our Fault

Source: Reuters

“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred.”

When reading the newly published Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) these are the first words you are greeted by – stark and to the point. This is a fact we have long known; however, the IPCC uses facts that even the most avid climate change denier may have a hard time arguing. For example, it is often argued that the earth is warming due to natural processes, and this is all part of a climate cycle. Well, the IPCC report shows through extensive data modeling that with only natural processes (such as a solar and volcanic activity), the earth would have warmed by a mere 0.2°C while in actuality due to human processes, it has warmed closer to 1.2°C. The same IPCC has of course warned us of the dangers of reaching an increase in temperature by 1.5°C only a few years ago (Spoiler: It’s very bad).

Thankfully, while the report is full of alarming facts, it also shows that we can still negate some of the future impacts of climate change. On our current trajectory, it is predicted that global temperature will rise by 3°C, however, if we can decrease our fossil fuel usage completely by 2050, and begin using carbon sequestration methods, it is predicted that the rise will level off at around 1.5°C.

But just how bad is the difference between a rise in 1.5°C, and that of 3, or even 4°C? For example, the report shows that if there is a 2°C rise, extreme temperature events that used to occur once every 50 years will instead occur 14 times in a 50-year span. Even more alarmingly, with an increase of 4°C, extreme temperature events occur 39 times over the same period. The difference in extreme droughts between the two is just about double as well. These, of course, will bring massive interruptions to agricultural systems and put a strain on water supplies.

For readers in Canada these climate changes will bring about warmer temperatures with higher levels of precipitation, this precipitation will not be useful for agriculture, however, as the moisture in the soil column is expected to evaporate rapidly due to higher temperatures. I am from Barbados, as such, for readers like myself who are from areas that climate change will disproportionately impact, such as the Caribbean, these changes will be seen through increased hurricane frequency and severity increased instances of extreme drought, and of course, rising sea levels. These effects can already be seen with a record-breaking fifth named storm by July 1^st. If this doesn’t sound impressive (or scary!) – there aren’t usually five named storms until the end of August.

I don’t know about you, but I agree with this IPCC report – the time to act is now.

Limiting Future Climate Change

Source: Giving Compass

The report provided specific solutions to limit future climate change while being cognisant of the fact (as we have mentioned above) that much damage has already been done to the Earth by it. It is important to note, that the suggested solutions were provided in the hopes that nations all over the world would begin working on them immediately—as is a running theme in this report, climate change is very much an urgent and pressing matter in which we are running out of time to effectively combat it.

The main solution suggested that we must limit human-induced global warming by targeting/limiting cumulative CO₂ or any other carbon-based emissions. The hope of the report is that nations look toward reaching net-zero carbon dioxide emissions, as a first start in limiting the production of other greenhouse gases. Additionally, the report suggests “sustained reductions” in CH₄ (commonly known as methane), would aid not only in decreasing the effect of global warming but also would improve global air quality.

Furthermore, the report concluded that scenarios with low or very low GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions lead within the next 20 years might dramatically restore climate impact drives to manageable states. However, it will take collaborative work from all nations in order to make these scenarios a reality.

Can you imagine, if we play our cards right, in 2040 we might have a utopia free from climatic disasters?

UN CLIMATE REPORT 2021: The Origins of the Evolution and the Ascent of Humanity, Part Two

Here at A\J, we’re working on a print issue this summer that aims to use the device of ‘climate fiction’ to project what the future will look like in 2071, the year A\J (hopefully) turns 100. And the head-space required to bridge space and time has proved helpful to this writer as he wrestles with understanding if this report will be the actual tipping point (or part thereof) that moves our species forward. The science and research and data presented in the 2021 report isn’t all that different from the 2001 report; we’ve simply lost 20 years trying to make our fellow humans understand the importance of what we’re studying, learning, and sharing. We had our then-editor, Megan Nourse, at COP21, supposedly the A-HA moment of global climate awakening and action-taking. We’re just now being shocked awake, judging by today’s headlines.

So how do we ensure that, finally, the message gets through to the mass of humanity (and, more importantly, the humans holding the power to make better decisions), allowing the natural evolution to a more sustainable future to occur in the most expedient (and least painful) way possible? Well, if we Canadians have learned anything through the Covid-19 era it’s that strong, clear, and simple public health messages repeated FREQUENTLY do hold the power to help the average citizen to comprehend and make better decisions individually and collectively. 

HERE IS THE THREAT. IT IS A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER. WE’RE NOT SUGAR-COATING ANYTHING. IT IS REAL AND YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED, HOWEVER, WE CAN ALL DO THINGS TO MINIMIZE THAT THREAT AND YOU CAN MITIGATE THAT DANGER FOR YOU AND YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS BY (wearing a mask, social distancing, getting vaccinated, etc.). AND DOING SO WILL ALLOW US TO GET THROUGH THIS AS QUICKLY AND PAINLESSLY AS POSSIBLE.

And that message has been repeated, in iteration, consistently for the past 18 months and will likely be a presence for at least another year longer. We Canadians were confused by this novel coronavirus, we needed to be educated, informed, and alerted, and then we needed to be guided through the process to minimize the risk and to flatten the curve. And, as a whole, we did a pretty good job, at least compared to our G20 peers.

Is climate change an emergency? ABSOLUTELY. Does it hold the potential to be a MUCH DEADLIER threat than Covid-19? ABSOLUTELY. Does it threaten the life and well-being of all Canadians, let alone all species on this planet? ABSOLUTELY. Can we come together and act together to minimize the pain that will accrue in the short term (paying yesterday’s climate bill) before the sunnier days ahead? ABSOLUTELY….if we are helped along the way. And if we truly want it to happen.

The evolution of the planet is happening, regardless of what we do. Can we humans leverage our humanity to make that evolution happen for the benefit and betterment of all species? 

That only time can tell!

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 61 appeared first on A\J.

Source: The Limited Times

An article published today by National Geographic suggests that extreme heatwaves this summer and are becoming increasingly dangerous for pets over the last few decades. That’s right, your cats, dogs, and birds are all in danger of overheating, so it is important to recognize the signs of this phenomenon so that you can protect them from our over warming planet.

Firstly, it is important to identify how your pet cools down in warm temperatures. Interestingly, common house pets like rabbits and birds do not sweat at all. Dogs do sweat, but only do so from their paws and noses; they otherwise rely on panting to evaporate water from their body. Lastly, cats groom themselves to keep cool.

The article also suggests that fur is important to keep a pet cool during especially warm seasons, as it acts as an insulator of sorts (like shade) and keeps heat from direct sunlight from penetrating the skin, further preventing sunburn—don’t get a fancy cut for your dog/cat, because it won’t help them in the long run!

Moreover, you should identify if your pet is in the “high risk” category of suffering from heatstroke so that extra preventative measures might be taken; in this grouping, there are short-headed dogs, overweight pets, and extremely young or old pets. Furthermore, you should note during travel that your pet is likely acclimated to their home’s climate, so going great distances to climatically different locations might be a shock to your pet’s system. It is best to introduce them to different climatic situations as they are growing, so they are acclimated to all different types of weather.

The Future of Cars in the U.S.A is Electric

Source: ABC News

On Thursday the Biden administration announced their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, in their overarching strategy to battle climate change. This strategy would primarily focus on creating an infrastructure of electric cars for all different types of industry in the country.

President Joe Biden demonstrated his support for this plan by scandalously driving a Ford F-150 Lightning pickup at a Ford testing site. He drove up to reporters and said, “this sucker is quick”. It seemed to be an excellent promotion strategy used to encourage the country’s private sectors to adopt similar heavy transport for their shipping and other product needs.

The Biden administration just recently signed an executive order to ensure that half of all new vehicles sold by 2030 in the country would be zero-emission-centric—including electric vehicles and hybrid-electric vehicles. This was just one of the ideas proposed to reduce the country’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.

It is important to note that electric vehicle production and distribution have fallen behind in the U.S. compared to other countries in the last few years—electric vehicles represent only 2% of all new cars sold in the country in the past three years, as suggested by the International Energy Agency.

However, the Biden administration and many other climate activist groups hope that the introduction and wide-scale distribution of these vehicles will help the warming globe in the process. Get ready to drive your favorite Prius model X America!

So THAT’S Where Our Money went!

Source: Motley Fool

It’s been a busy week with lots of news so this little item, first published in a report on CNN, leads with a wonderfully clear headline:

Oil companies are wooing skeptical investors with cash. Will it work?

The story looks at global players such as BP (the artist formerly known as British Petroleum) and such but it quickly reminded this writer of a report released by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). This report, released in early July, makes clear what is at stake for us Canadians as our federal government seeks to both create the conditions for battling our environmental relalities (‘we declare a climate emergency’) while simultaneously throwing hard-earned taxpayer dollars at the oil and gas sector (‘I know we declared a climate emergency yesterday but we’re going to spend $7 billion today on Trans-Mountain Pipeline…..because we’re operating like it’s 2015!’).

From the precis:

“Over the past three years, oil and gas pipelines received more than CAD 23 billion in support from Canadian federal and provincial governments, including CAD 10 billion since the COVID-19 pandemic started, reveals a new study released today by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), titled Pipelines or Progress: Government support for oil and gas pipelines in Canada.”

Now back to the financial machinations/bribery. From CNN:

“Wall Street isn’t convinced that the world’s biggest oil firms can successfully overhaul their businesses as the climate crisis accelerates.

The industry response? To dangle more cash.

What’s happening: BP (BP), which announced results that beat expectations on Tuesday, upped its dividend by 4% to 5.46 cents per share and said it would buy back $1.4 billion in shares over the next quarter. Its stock jumped more than 5% in London in early trading.

In the past week, competitors Chevron (CVX) and Total (TOT) also announced share buyback plans, while Shell (RDSA) boosted its dividend and said it would repurchase $2 billion in stock by the end of the year.”

There’s nothing untoward about this strategy, a tried and true method among the Wall Street crowd and Ponzi schemers worldwide. However, at a time when we are trying desperately to justify the investments necessary to future-proof our economy from the worst impacts of the climate emergency, our government is giving our money away to a sector that is simply and singularly focused on squeezing more profits from their inventories of GHG-causing, climate-emergency-exacerbating ‘dead dinosaur juice’. Use that money to provide job and skills retraining for the hard-working workers? Use that money to create a pool to pay for the costs of cleaning up abandoned wells? How about billions to clean up the uber-toxic tailing ponds in the tar sands?

Nope. They’ll use the money to bribe investors. And those short-term investors don’t really care about long-term environmental impacts. They care about short-term returns. And our collective investment made by our current government?

Short-term thinking, more like it!

Slow But Steady Progress

Source: WWF

There may be no more iconic species for deep-green naturalists than the Galapagos Islands Tortoise, an ancient species who, due to their longevity, might have an individual member who actually met Charles Darwin as he was researching DESCENT OF MAN AND THE ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES in the 1860s!

Unfortunately, the intervening years haven’t been kind to the tortoises, as their interactions with humans proved deadly. From overconsumption as a food source to the creeping (and devastating) impacts of human-caused, anthropogenic climate change such as habitat loss and food scarcity, the Galapagos tortoises have seen their numbers plummet. Until recently.

A report released this year by the Galapagos Conservancy shares some hopeful news:

“According to park rangers and scientists from the Giant Tortoise Restoration Initiative (GTRI), the results of the recent expedition to Alcedo Volcano in the northern part of Isabela Island to conduct a census of the tortoise population there (Chelonoidis vandenburghi) exceeded all expectations, with 4,723 individual tortoises located and marked.

Data suggest that this is a healthy population: in nature, a population of such a large size, with many older as well as younger individuals, and that has one male for each female — as is the case of the Alcedo volcano tortoises — is considered a completely viable population

Danny Rueda, director of the Galapagos National Park Directorate (GNPD), indicated that the expedition revealed that this is the population of giant tortoises that is in the best condition in Galapagos, but it is not free of threats; invasive species such as rats and feral cats were also found.

“Finding such a large number of tortoises on Alcedo Volcano confirms that the management programs implemented in that environment have been successful. The eradication of goats and donkeys in 2006 has allowed the giant tortoise population here to flourish. In addition, abundant vegetation was found, which guarantees a permanent source of food for this species,” added Rueda.

This is wonderful news. But the program director reminded:

As a result of the management actions implemented by the GNPD and its collaborators during the last six decades, Galapagos is likely home to around 60,000 giant tortoises including the populations of the different species — a number that is still low considering that more than 200,000 tortoises were removed from the Archipelago in previous centuries.”

Two takeaways: 1) we CAN make a difference tomorrow with the work we are doing today; and 2) we have a LOT of work to do to make good for all the messes we’ve made when we weren’t paying attention.

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 60 appeared first on A\J.

I never understood why I had to make a catchy headline; I always loved to read anything even if the headline was boring and dull. Give me a news article called “subsidiaries in the oil industry and their effect on integrated ecosystems” and I would happily read it with my morning coffee. Maybe, I am unique in that regard, but I think it has more to do with an ever-present desire to absorb content. I want my brain to full of objective information and I want to share it with others, thus my position at Alternatives Journal.

Although, I quickly became curious about this topic. Not so much the evolution of headlines, but rather the evolution of journalistic media into the subjective and sensational industry it is currently. I also wanted to understand how this style of reporting has affected the promotion/relevance of environmental issues. I was already interested in environmental communication, from a purely scholarly perspective. But I also know that if no one talks about climate change because it is not “interesting” enough then we have a real problem on our hands.

I first stumbled upon a report published by the RAND Corporation in 2019, called “News in a Digital Age: Comparing the Presentation of News Information Over Time…”. The study was analyzing how the style of news presentation in print journalism and broadcast journalism changed between 1989 to 2017. It also analyzed how online journalism differed from print journalism (in the 2012 – 2017 period). The report was published in a series of studies, researching how media (in its presentation of facts, data, etc.) affected society’s political/civil discourse.

The key findings of this particular report that are of interest in this article were thus:

1. Print journalism has made significant shifts to being more subjective (opinion-based). Stating specifically that there were “meaningful shifts” away from a focus on events, time, and other strict details toward a more narrative approach (with more personal perspective and emotion)
2. Online journalism has become a “subjective advocate”. It is more direct and personal than print media and likely takes an advocate role in any social issue.

Interestingly, subjective journalism might reduce the trust between readers and media, as it is more personal and might reduce fact-based content. To which I argue that I started this article with personal information in hopes that it might connect me to you (my wonderful reader) and encourage you to read further. Often people look for a story with people they can relate to or at the very least sympathize with. For example, if you were reading about a theft of a small business in your locality would you only want the strict details of the crime, OR would you also want comments on how the owners were affected as well? In my opinion, subjectivity leans towards humanity. It is simple we should write like a human to cater to our human readers.

This thought is further corroborated by other sources as well. The book “Beyond News: The Future of Journalism” written by Mitchell Stephens, states that journalists should take the role of an appropriately opinionated analyst, rather than a strict teller of details.

However, in the scurry of remaining relatable and interesting, online and print reporting has also taken a turn towards requiring a “shock” feature. Another way, journalism has shifted greatly in the last few decades has to do with a tantalizing term – media sensationalism. As one article describes it, today’s journalism is solely focused on the expansion of truth to appear more “exciting and dramatic”, largely in efforts to gain higher ratings and views on any published article. This includes making clickbait-style headlines and often over-reporting on a story that has garnered mass attention in its initial publication. This style of repetitive publishing has often been seen in news media about acts of mass violence.

The danger of sensational journalism is that it often ignores seemingly “dull” stories that will not make for a good story much less a catchy headline. In this regard, important and pressing matters such as smaller events connected to climate change are often not reported on heavily or at all and are ignored until a greater calamity arises. For example, a report on subnormal algae blooms in Lake Eerie does not get attention, even though it speaks to a larger issue of global warming and the pollution of our lakes.

It will likely take something drastic, such as the contamination of drinking water in the communities or mass amounts of biodiversity loss in the lake to actually get the attention of media circuits. This lack of reporting also leads to less motion by governance bodies, who often respond directly to pressure from the public and media attention on social/environmental issues. All of which leads to a cycle of inaction that allows smaller environmental problems to build into larger, less manageable, environmental disasters. It takes a few little fires, to create one large unstoppable wildfire, and this same ecological ideology can be applied to the effect of environmental journalism.

This begs the question, what should environmental reporting and media actually aspire to be? To which I would say that particular thought process is pointless. We cannot correct decades of sensationalism, nor should we attempt to correct subjectivity in writing (proven to be helpful in all manner of reporting). Instead, I would ask consumers of media to expand their horizons in what they read.

As one article published in the Ecologist suggests, support independent media (such as A/J) by sharing and promoting their content in order to create a progressive and environmentally aware collective. The next environmental movement might very well lie within the words of countless articles online and on social media. But I would like to think that it actually begins in you and what stories you want to read.

I hope selfishly that it is mine and other dedicated publications, striving to make the small fires a BIG deal. What a scandalous thought, am I right?

The post Can You Hear Our Earth Dying? – Journalism and the Environmental Movement appeared first on A\J.

Source: The Guardian

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is currently starting its investigation into eco-sabotage in the state of Washington. It has been reported that are over 40 cases of environmental crimes committed largely by people to damage oil and transportation companies—eco sabotage occurs by outside parties on railways and rail lines connected to oil production.

The most serious allegation occurred on December 22, 2020, when a train got derailed and caused a spill of 29 000 gallons of oil, leading to the evacuation of 120 people nearby. This incident was thought to be caused by activists sabotaging railways to show their solidarity with indigenous communities nearby.

Similar incidents occurred around the same time, the most notable one being on November 28, 2020; two women were arrested for placing a shunt (a wire that when placed across a track to stop a train by a series of electrical signals). Both women face up to 20 years in prison for acts of eco-terrorism and violating Title 18 of the US Code. It is thought that these two women were also “acting on behalf” (even though the following Indigenous community did not urge or promote such behaviour) of the Indigenous people in the Wet’suwet’en territory.

This group is located largely in northern British Columbia, where a new pipeline (Coastal Gaslink) is being created. In order to stop this construction, protestors have taken to acts of eco-sabotage, however, have failed to see that more environmental damage has been caused in due process. It is not to suggest that such developments (pipelines) do not deserve fair protest, as it does lead to societal harm by infringing on indigenous rights and environmental harm. Although, violence is likely not the route to take as it radicalizes an issue that can be diplomatically handled. That issue is:

Building a pipeline across the land owned by the most important people in your country. How is that respectful at all?

Snap Election?

Source: Green Party

Our friends at GreenPac, the environmental non-partisan, nonprofit that works year-round to identify, elect, and support environmental leaders, (and provides parliamentary internship opportunities for young Canadian environmental students – a great program!), has their fingers on the pulse of Parliament Hill and thus we paid attention when we received their most recent dispatch:

It looks like a federal election call may be right around the corner.

In the face of wildfire and heat domes, this is an election where climate and the environment – and their intersection to health, economy, and justice – need to be front and centre. That’s where GreenPAC comes in! Elections are all about platforms and promises. But, at GreenPAC, we work to activate and inspire environmental leadership, action, and accountability in politics.

In terms of ‘moving the needle’ on environmental issues, federal legislative changes hold the potential to provide the national mandates to hit the fast-forward button on many key environmental fronts. Making that legislative change happen comes by electing ‘environmental leaders from all political stripes. And that’s where GreenPac helps out, by endorsing candidates with strong environmental bona fides and by working with local organizers to host ALL CANDIDATES DEBATES. 

Specifically, GreenPac has launched a campaign in anticipation of the writ’s drop called 100 DEBATES ON THE ENVIRONMENT:

The mission is simple: Ensure Canadian politicians across the country know they need an ambitious and actionable climate plan in order to win votes in the 2021 Election. How? By organizing 100 Debates on the Environment. We did it in 2019 and we’re doing it again! We already have 45+ organizers coming on board to organize a debate in their ridings. What are you waiting for? Become an organizer now! We’ll give you all the tools & support you need to make it a breeze.

Sounds like an interesting idea and something that we at A\J will be following closely in the weeks and months ahead.

Here and Now

Source: IIED

A new report released this week by the UK’s Meteorological Office entitled State of the UK Climate 2020 makes it abundantly clear that the impacts of the climate crisis are already changing the localized climates for our communities. The report, the ninth in a series of exhaustively researched and reviewed, provides unequivocal evidence in its Executive Summary:

• The UK’s climate is changing. Recent decades have been warmer, wetter, and sunnier than the 20th century.

• The year 2020 was the third warmest, fifth wettest, and eighth sunniest on record for the UK. No other year has fallen in the top-10 for all three variables for the UK.
• The UK has warmed at a broadly consistent but slightly higher rate than the observed change in global mean temperature.

As the report’s lead author, Mike Kendon, a climate information scientist at the UK Met Office, shared with the BBC:

“A lot of people think climate change is in the future – but this proves the climate is already changing here in the UK. “As it continues to warm we are going to see more and more extreme weather such as heatwaves and floods.”

So what does that mean in terms of real-world, right-now impacts? Again, from the BBC:

Liz Bentley, head of the Royal Meteorological Society, said that even if governments could achieve the challenging outcome of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5C – which looks very unlikely – that would still lead to a 10% increase in the amount of water the air can hold.

“In the UK,” she said, “we are likely to see temperatures of 40C. As we get 1.5C warming, that’ll be something we see on a regular basis.

“People don’t realise that even a small temperature rise of 0.1 or 0.2 degrees overall can make a huge difference – especially in the frequency and intensity of extreme events.

“We had roads melting last year, rails start to buckle, electric cabling starts to buckle. It often takes a massive high-impact event to change attitudes to the climate – so let’s hope what’s been happening recently with extreme weather will raise the will to tackle the problem.”

And hopefully, the leaders of our communities pay heed to researchers like Dr. Bentley and summon their own will to enact policies and promote projects that align our actions with the facts as they’re unfurling in front of our eyes.

Mangrove Forests Are Disappearing, The Answer Lies in its Invertebrates

Source: Oceana

A journal article published this week suggests that mangrove forests (forests located by the coast of many tropical countries) might be threatened by the reduced diversity of invertebrates in them. Mangrove ecosystems are important in many countries as they prevent flooding into inland areas and provide many other ecological benefits. Unfortunately, they are also threatened by deforestation and other anthropocentric activities).

It is thought that this deforestation has also impacted the diversity of invertebrates (largely aquatic) in the area and has reduced the appearance of less common species. This is quite terrible news, as the main ecological functioning in mangrove forests relies on mutual relationships with a healthy and diverse group of invertebrates—these small organisms sustain both flora and fauna in this ecosystem.

Researchers found that mangrove ecosystems have “low functional redundancy”. This means that it does not have that great of ecological insurance. For example, in ecosystems with high functional redundancy if one species were to disappear another would likely be able to fulfill its function in the ecosystem. In mangrove ecosystems and others with low functional redundancy, if a species were to disappear there would be no replacement and that would likely lead to its ultimate downfall.

It is now crucial to address the functional diversity in mangrove ecosystems, lest we see them gone forever in the next decade.

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 59 appeared first on A\J.

The years from 1968 to 1971 saw the creation of environmental organizations and institutions including Pollution Probe at the University of Toronto, the York University Faculty of Environmental Studies (the first interdisciplinary environmental degree in North America), and both the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment Canada. Also in 1971, a faculty and student group began Alternatives: Perspectives on Society and Environment at Trent University. 

Alternatives was intentionally created to be as much magazine as an academic journal. We wanted to reach a wide audience rather than any specific academic discipline or specialization. As useful as academic publications written mostly for academics are we believed that solving environmental problems required greater society-wide understanding, concern, and action. And, we believed environmental problems would be with us for a long time.

We got that right even though some early environmental problems did get fixed, at least in part. Many other problems have emerged since and have proven to be more intractable. We should not, however, overlook the improvements that the environmental movement has spurred over these five decades. Humans can fix the problems we create.

The early issues of Alternatives addressed waste and recycling well before blue boxes were an everyday thing. We also questioned the second Toronto airport which, it was claimed at the time, was urgently needed. Fifty years later there still is no second airport. Water quality is also still concerning, but at least rivers flowing into the Great Lakes do not catch on fire. And, one can buy organic food just about anywhere whereas in 1971 store workers were apologetic (or confused) if one asked for organic produce. 

It takes looking back on that long-ago time to realize that environmental concern has led to some significant improvements. Habitat loss has, however, continued and profound challenges like climate change have arisen. 

Reading our very first issue repeatedly, I was also struck that we got some other things right enough to contribute in a small way to changing how universities approach environmental problems. In that first issue, we chose authors from diverse disciplines (including anthropology, political science, economics, biology, and history) and called for an interdisciplinary approach to environmental problems (see both the editorial in that issue 1 and the excellent article by Peter Victor). Environmental problems themselves have driven the creation of university-based interdisciplinary efforts. Most universities now offer many interdisciplinary degree options — many more than there were in the 1970s.

Alternatives first issue made several other points worth noting in a 50-year retrospect. Joel Edelstein documented the horrors of Los Angeles smog where school children, including his young son, could not play outdoors many days of the year. Henry Steck noted the extent to which technological choices contributed to environmental problems. We know now that urban air quality has since improved considerably because catalytic converters are required in all gas-powered cars and coal-fired electricity is now close to a thing of the past in North America. Technology choices may not solve every environmental problem, but they can make a huge difference.

We were also very clear from the outset that Canada’s environmental challenges could not be treated in isolation from those of other nations. Geoff Mains’s article in that first issue (titled Canada, the United States, and the Environment) makes this clear. A reader of this piece today would also see more easily the extent to which environmental problems are global. In 1971 few were thinking about ozone depletion, climate change, or global habitat loss.

Indeed, to get a better sense of how far we have come and how far we have to go take an afternoon to read the first year or two of A/J and other publications of the day while reflecting on what has changed and what has changed not.

A word from Alternatives Journal: This is our last piece on the AJ Pilot Issue Revisited series. Thank you for joining us in this period of reflection and happiness. Fifty years of publication, all of them devoted to you. We would not want anything less and dare not ask for anything more. Well, maybe to keep reading and dreaming with us. From our first issue all the way to the last.

The post A Word from Our Founder, Time Flies – A/J Pilot Issue Revisited appeared first on A\J.

Source: The Guardian

Stumbled upon an interesting and somewhat amusing story of an Italian team that has been, since 2008, covering a glacier in northern Italy, the Presena glacier, with huge reflective tarps during summer months to minimize the ice loss due to rising heat. The glacier has already lost one-third of its volume since 1993, and the project has managed to grow from covering an area of around 30,000 square metres in 2008 to more than 100,000 square metres today.

The work is carried out by a private firm under contract to the government, and one of the project’s key goals is to protect a glacier that supports a wintertime ski economy. The article continues:

Once in place, the sheets, which measure 70m by 5m, are hardly distinguishable from the packed white snow beneath. The Austrian-made tarps cost up to €400 ($450) each and it takes the team six weeks to install them – and another six weeks to remove them before winter sets in again.

Which got me thinking about the other vital glaciers and mountainous ice caps like those that lie atop the Himalayas. And some glaciers and their kin closer to home here in Canada. As we ponder the best ways to mitigate the worst impacts of the climate emergency that are already present in our lives – with an eye towards minimizing the duration and degree of devastation that we’ll need to endure before the worst is over – we’ll need to start getting more creative in taking small but meaningful steps to protect species at risks, including glaciers.

And given the recent headline in the Washington Post…

Earth is now losing 1.2 trillion tons of ice each year. And it’s going to get worse.

…we’re probably going to need a lot more blankets!

Quebec Chooses Environment Over 14 Billion Dollar Gas Project 

Source: Montreal CTV News

Quebec has rejected 14 billion dollars from a natural gas project in Saguenay, as it works to reduce the province’s overall environmental impact. The proposed development had to do with the creation of a power and processing plant in Port Saguenay, Quebec—the plant would primarily function in liquifying natural gas transported from Western Canada. Additionally, the project would also fund the development of a 780-kilometre pipeline connecting to other natural gas lines in Ontario.

Premier François Legault had been in favour of this project In the beginning as it would diversify their economy, which had been largely dependent on metal and forestry industries. Although, this soon changed as the company in charge of the project had failed to pass three main criteria (provided by the provincial government) pertaining to its environmental impacts. This included: (1) aiding the province in the transition towards green energy; (2) lower the province’s greenhouse gas emissions; (3) garner public support for the project.

The company behind the proposal, known as GNL Quebec, had initial plans to make the plant carbon neutral in an effort to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions produced in the processing centre. However, the Quebec environmental review board estimated that these “reductions” would not likely occur. The project was then rejected by the province in lieu of consultation from the aforementioned review board and due to protests from many environmental groups; including most prominently the David Suzuki Foundation and Greenpeace. It is also important to note that many indigenous communities within the province had also opposed the project, likely further fueling the government’s decision to halt it.

Join Ontario’s Youth Environment Council!

Source: Ontario.ca

The Ontario provincial government is creating a new Youth Environment Council to allow young environmental activists to help solve climate change and other environmental issues in their area! The group would be a collection of passionate nine to 12 year-olds who would apply to have a position in the council through a volunteer-based system. The applications would be due on August 4^th, 2021 and the program would begin in the fall of 2021 (at the beginning of the school year)—the final members will be announced this summer.

The list of topics that the government would like the youth group to work on would be as follows:

• How can the government strengthen its understanding of youth climate issues regionally?
• How can the government ensure that youth voices are fully inclusive in creating environmental solutions?
• What connections/relationships can be created between policy-makers and young environmental activists?

This program would also provide learning opportunities to its council, such that they might have a future career in environmental assessment or law-making. The group is expected to meet monthly (from September 2021 – April 2022) and will be sourced from all regions of Ontario, including from Indigenous communities.

If you or your child is interested and has a passion for the environment, then this opportunity might be your gateway into changing the world for the better!

Ancient Threats Uncovered in Melting Glaciers

Source: BBC

This week, a team of scientists and researchers released a study detailing that they’ve recently uncovered 33 species of viruses found frozen in two glaciers in the Himalayas, 28 of which have never been detected before.

From the news report:

Researchers from Ohio State University report that the glacial ice containing the viruses dates as far back as 14,500 years. It was found more than 6,700 metres above sea level, at the Guliya ice cap in western China, and removed for analysis in 2015.

As you can see, we’re literally just scratching the surface of our knowledge of the natural world, while we wrestle with our own worst efforts to destroy much of nature. And all the while wrestling with the impacts of one virus – the coronavirus – on the human population across the planet. So should we be worried about the viruses ‘re-animating and inflicting some prehistoric pox upon the people?

Again, from the report:

The remaining viruses had previously been cataloged, and – perhaps adding another bit of relief to this discovery – tend to infect bacteria, not humans or animals. Additionally, the researchers say, environmental clues suggest that the newly discovered viruses didn’t attack humans either. More likely, they thrived in plants and soil.

So, in this case, we’re pretty sure that nothing untoward will happen. But with the number of potential viruses buried in permafrost and glaciers starts melting measured in the millions (if not billions), we humans have another good reason to be more careful as we engage with an awakening natural world less than enamored with our collective behavior

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 58 appeared first on A\J.

As Alternatives Journal approaches its 50^th anniversary, we would love to hear feedback from you on our company and its work thus far! We are looking for young passionate writers who are interested in a future in journalism to give their take on A/J.

How do you think we are doing? How can we improve? What should we do to create the best environment for up-and-coming writers such as yourself? Most importantly, what do you think are the core beliefs and aspirations of our organization?

If you are interested, please send us an email with a sample of your work to this address: ishani.dasgupta@alternativesjournal.ca

We look forward to hearing from you and seeing your work! You can change the world, and we would love to help you with it.

The post Get Your Voice Published – Call for Young Writers! appeared first on A\J.

Source: NZ Herald 

Today farmers in New Zealand have taken to the streets in thousands to stage a protest against environmental regulations passed by the national government. It was named the Howl of Protest and included a span of over 51 towns and cities in the country. The protest included many farmers driving tractors and holding signs into capitals and busy urban locations, to garner the most attention—the most notable vehicle was a five kilometre long convoy used for the protest in the town of Dunedin.

The protest sparked after the country introduced new environmental regulations focused on decreasing the amount of pollution, biodiversity loss, and emissions directly from unsustainable agricultural practices. In 2019, a report published by the government explained the consequences of the continuation of such practices in the country: the loss of over 4000 native species and the disappearance of many sensitive ecosystems (significantly wetlands). More recently, in 2020 the same reporting group found that over 60% of the country’s rivers were not swimmable dually because of farming and housing processes.

The leading protest group which organized this event, known as Groundswell NZ, does not believe that a “one-size-fits-all approach” would not be feasible to solve the agri-environmental issue. However, any action that rewards the environment and places its importance above established industry is much needed in New Zealand.

Such drastic change will of course include uncomfortable decisions made by those industries. But it is in the best interest of these protesting farmers to make some of them at least, to save the very land they work on.

Out of this world – or out of our minds?

Source: Gadgets 360

You may have heard, read, or seen Sir Richard Branson ushering in the era of space tourism with the recent launch of VSS Unity 1. And, like many of you, perhaps you were thinking…..is this a good thing?

Well, as it turns out, you are not alone. Aside from the Facebook and Instagram memes reminding our billionaire space cowboys that we’ve got enough problems here on earth to sort out first, many writers and thinkers have been pondering the ethical and environmental impacts of space tourism. A recent article on CTV.com featured the headline: 

“Space travel is open for business, but what about the environmental impact?”

Specifically, the main areas of concern related to the carbon footprint of fossil-fuel-powered jet flights and the risks associated with the elements they will deposit in the atmosphere. And this might not be such a big problem today, when “there were 114 attempted orbital launches in the world, according to NASA, which compares to the airline industry’s more than 100,000 flights each day”, but imagine a near-future when throngs of us flightless humans desire to replicate Sir Richard’s weightlessness feat. 

Eloise Marais, an associate professor of physical geography at University College London, is currently conducting research on pollutant emissions from rocket launches. While this might be the most obvious threat, Marais’s research focuses on something that may be even more threatening, which is the damage to the ozone layer that may accrue from deposits of CFCs and oxides that are expelled by the solid-fuel rockets that propel the starships to the stars.

Many might assume that the biggest environmental threat from increased space travel is from higher greenhouse gas emissions, Marais’ research is focused on an area some see as a more significant threat, which is the potential damage to the ozone layer, which helps shield the Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. 

“Solid rocket fuel is really the worst,” Marais said. “They produce a lot of chlorine, a lot of nitrogen oxides and those are quite efficient at depleting ozone.”

And Dr. Marais isn’t alone. 

“While several environmental impacts are resulting from the launch of space vehicles, the depletion of stratospheric ozone is the most studied and most immediately concerning,” Jessica Dallas, currently a senior policy advisor at the New Zealand Space Agency, wrote in an analysis of research on space launch emissions published last year in the Journal of Cleaner Production.

So before I buy my million-dollar ticket (I’m starting a GoFundMe tomorrow) to join the Galatic Empire, I think I’ll do more thinking about whether these types of vanity projects really do hold the potential for human growth and development.

Space exploration, I can see. We, humans, are always interested in learning more and doing more. Space tourism that caters to the privileged and deep-pocketed few? No thanks, especially not with the rising evidence of the environmental damage being caused in pursuit of a weightless selfie.

“Drought is on the verge of becoming the next pandemic and there is no vaccine to cure it.”

Source: United Nations

As the world slowly creeps out of a Covid-inspired lockdown, we’ve learned a few things about ourselves as individuals and as a species. Individually, we can be incredibly inventive and resilient (a vaccine in 9 months!) and incredibly selfish (anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, etc.), sometimes at the same time. As a species, we’ve learned that we are equally threatened by global forces like a virulent pandemic (or, maybe an anthropogenic climate crisis?) as any other species. 

This is why we should all be paying a lot more attention to the folks at the United Nations’ UN WATER team. They recently released a report entitled New UNDRR report launched with stark warnings that drought could be the next pandemic.

The introduction to the report includes this warning:

“Mami Mizutori, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, said: “Drought is on the verge of becoming the next pandemic and there is no vaccine to cure it. Most of the world will be living with water stress in the next few years. Demand will outstrip supply during certain periods.”

And from the precis to the report itself:

“Droughts have deep, widespread, and underestimated impacts on societies, ecosystems, and economies. They incur costs that are borne disproportionately by the most vulnerable people.  The extensive impacts of drought are consistently underreported even though they span large areas, cascade through systems and scales, and linger through time, affecting millions of people and contributing to food insecurity, poverty, and inequality. Climate change is increasing temperatures and disrupting rainfall patterns, increasing the frequency, severity, and duration of droughts in many regions across the globe.  As we move towards a 2˚C warmer world, urgent action is required to better understand and more effectively manage drought risk to reduce the devastating toll on human lives and livelihoods, and ecosystems.”

A recent survey of news headlines from the western US added the following emphasis:

• Severe drought threatens Hoover dam reservoir – and water for US west
• The shocking numbers behind the Lake Mead drought crisis
• New Water Wars Are Coming to the American West

And a reminder from our friends at the World Wildlife Organization:

“Only 3% of the world’s water is freshwater, and two-thirds of that is tucked away in frozen glaciers or otherwise unavailable for our use. As a result, some 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to water, and a total of 2.7 billion find water scarce for at least one month of the year.”

From water usage reduction programs for homes and businesses through to new investments in desalination projects, there is an URGENT need for new solutions and approaches to this problem. And while there may not be a vaccine that will allow us to prevent this crisis, we can definitely put the same energies and resources towards coming together as a species to ideate, create and innovate our way to a more verdant tomorrow. And we’ll all drink to that!

Canada Stalls Improving Environmental Protection Law

Source: Water Canada

An article released this week by Canada’s National Observer suggests that health workers must take an active role in rewriting Canada’s environmental protection laws and regulations to maintain a certain degree of public health that might be threatened by rising pollution in the country.

The article discusses the history of the Canadian Environmental Act (CEPA), starting with its creation in 1988—its only purpose was to regulate environmental issues which affected the health of Canadian citizens and residents. Many revisions have been made to the legislation since its introduction and most recently Bill C-28 introduced steps to strengthen the CEPA in April 2021.

However, the national government is still hesitant to pass such legislation and despite a push from many civil society groups, it has yet to be approved. Additionally, recommendations provided by the groups suggest that having a healthy environment is more important than economic processes within any industry and such policy should be enforced. Within this, the groups advise that air quality be measurable and a binding promise between industry and its residents, enforced by the CEPA.

Despite the promise of this bill on protecting Canadians from environmental issues (such as pollution), the Canadian government has yet to pass this legislation. The country will have time to review this bill in the fall, hopefully, they will make an informed decision on improving our own environmental protection act. 

2 New Right Whales Entangled and Found in Canadian Waters

Source: CBC

After a devastating loss in population over the last few decades, the North Atlantic Right Whales seemed to finally be recovering. However, last week 2 new whales were found entangled in fishing lines off the coast of New Brunswick. These are the first new entanglements to be reported since 2019 in Canadian waters, but do not bode well for the whale population which is severely ill-prepared for even the loss of a few individuals—there being only 350 individuals left in the world.

The first whale was spotted by the Campobello Whale Rescue and was reported to be a 16-year old female, who had been spotted in a similar state in the winter but was not approached. The second individual was newly entangled and was observed this Tuesday and identified by its ecological tracking number.

As discussed in a prior article, the main reason for the rapid decline of these whale species has recently been due to fishing lines; historically these whales were hunted when they were abundant during the colonial era of exploitation. The solution to protecting this species has been difficult as it targets primarily the lobster fishing industry (the main source of income for many locales).

Agreements to reduce the number of fishing lines near whale habitat have been discussed and briefly enforced, however, was soon challenged in court by many fishing groups. A solution to both protect the whale species and maintain a highly important economic fishing sector has yet to be reached.

The post The WTF: The Week This Friday Vol. 57 appeared first on A\J.

By the time I started working in publishing as an adult, the industry was at an inflection point; in both the technology that drove the work and the relative importance of the medium in comparison with the burgeoning television industry. What once required a room full of typesetters, layout artists, and hand-cut editing – along with full-size negatives that would be ‘dropped in at the last moment – had been replaced by a desktop computer. Granted they ran $5000 each back in the day while possessing the computing capacity of today’s average smartphone. The on-site photoshoots had been replaced by the first iteration of digitized imagery, and anything that wasn’t tangible could soon be replicated digitally with the release of Photoshop 1.0. The back-end of the publishing process – the printing – was also adapting at this time, reducing the costs and speeding the process.

And that’s the point to keep in mind: the process was being streamlined because the earlier generation of profits-for-all had become curtailed as revenues shifted from print to visual (television). The philosophy of ‘’do more with less” was the mandate from the magazine’s financial officer and, if that advice wasn’t heeded, ‘efficiencies’ could be found, starting with your job! Like many great industry-based technological great leaps, the changes in the publishing industry, many of which are still present as challenges today, were conceived initially in times of plenty – then put on the shelf until the times of ‘less’ came upon us. And those “times of less” started to bite into the profitability of every publishing entity and especially for magazine publications like A\J that were (and still are) non-traditional, niche content serving a small but committed audience both of readers and a less defined audience of potential advertisers.

Don’t get me wrong: the revolution that is digital publishing truly opened the door for knowledge mobilization on a grand scale. 

And well before the internet created the conditions of ‘information for all, small, niche publishers in the 1990s began addressing topics and subjects that held appeal to them but might not have caught the attention of any of the existing (and conservative) publishers. Think ADBUSTERS – and the zeitgeist that underpinned its creation (capitalistic cannibalism is bad for us!) – with its pages packed with satire and parody ads of the largest corporate culprits. Which provided the home for the like-minded that helped to inspire the original ‘OCCUPY WALL STREET’ movement.

At A\J, we got with the program…eventually. We started including color, images, and more expansive illustrations in the magazine in the 1990s and really started to kick it up as we rolled into the aughts. Oh sure, we might have looked a bit different as we redesigned the magazine’s visual face (primarily cover) from time to time as the 1990s rolled forward, but the core work that we delivered – demystifying the academically dense study area of environmental science – continued unabated.

As we come into the 2010s, many things in our world and how we do our work changed….again. The explosion of digital media – online news sites and social media feeds – challenged us to our very core, and in many ways the HOW forced us to look at the WHY. And it couldn’t have come at a better time.

We, the organization, had been ensconced in academia since our founding in 1971. We were very good at speaking to those ‘inside the deep green tent’, the people with the same training as our editors and writers (professors and grad students). And while that was still important, it was less critical than helping to mobilize that knowledge to build allies with those who might be of a lighter-green persuasion. We needed to understand how to support the corporate community as they dipped their toes in the sustainability waters. We needed to know how to continue to share stories from the environmental community and the academic community, but to reach more and more eyeballs, and especially those younger readers frustrated with the slow pace of vitally-needed change.

A quarterly or bi-monthly publication works at its own pace, has its own culture, and tells stories in its own way. And yet, there was this huge need to serve content on a more frequent basis, to share lighter-green stories that could resonate with the average reader – and maybe even inspire them to take their first eco-steps. But what is a website? Is it the past content? The future? How does it get supported? And how do you promote it?

These were all vital questions and team A\J has spent many of the intervening years reflecting, reshaping, and, hopefully, improving our holistic abilities to publish environmental media stories in the manner (and via the medium) most appropriate for achieving the outcome. 

That is moving the needle of public environmental literacy. 

All the while trying to understand how to sustain a print magazine in a time when the ‘print is dead’ echoes continue to wash over our industry. The IN MEMORIAM (PUBLICATIONS) segment of our industry’s OSCARS keeps expanding.

And yet, despite all this change, the core reason why we do our work remains the same:

1. To support environmental education, in all its flowerings;
2. To support environmental journalism and to help provide a training ground for the next generation of environmental journalists;
3. And, in doing so, to provide the critically-needed media/communications canvas for the Canadian environmental community to share stories that capture attention, create interest, motivate desire and spark action.

That’s never changed. When Bob Paehlke stayed up late nights in the 1970s, these were the guiding missions that helped him to sustain his work. And they keep me up at night too. 

We’re 50 years old this year and theoretically, we should be readying for our happy retirement, knowing that our work is done and there’s no more left to be written. But that isn’t the case. We have all the science, data, and existing solutions (upon which improved versions will emanate) that we need to make the quick and relatively painless leap to a zero-carbon world. But between the distractions of living (which isn’t getting easier for many), the distractions that are foisted upon us to keep us from living, and the vested interests holding us back, the FACTS don’t seem to be followed by urgent and meaningful ACTION.

So we persevere. And we strive to stay true to our founding missions, even though every other aspect of our work has changed since 1971, some for the worst but mostly for the better. After all, it may have taken us 50 years to make the case for environmentalism to the taste of public appetite and industry interest suggests that the vaunted ‘big, green tipping point’ is just around the corner, probably prodded along (with a taser) by the worsening impacts of the climate crisis (before we get on the right side of it). In many ways, you could say that “we’re an overnight success….50 years in the making!”

So read on… and shine on you crazy diamonds!

The post How We Work Has Changed. Why Work Has Not: A/J Pilot Issue Revisited appeared first on A\J.